Since Hospira, the only American company to manufacture the lethal injection drug sodium thiopental, stopped producing it in 2011, states have scrambled to find alternative methods to execute people. And I think everyone would recognize that this case fell short of that standard,” Press Secretary Jay Carney said. “We have a fundamental standard in this country that even when the death penalty is justified, it must be carried out humanely. The White House expressed concern on Wednesday over the circumstances of the execution. Mary Fallin delayed the execution of Charles Warner for 14 days while the state conducts an investigation into the lethal injection death of inmate Clayton Lockett, who reportedly gasped, writhed, and said "oh man" before dying of a heart attack. At a press conference Wednesday, Fallin promised a thorough review but defended capital punishment as appropriate for "those who commit heinous crimes against their fellow men and women." Many states protect the identity of these pharmacies under secrecy laws, which means it is impossible to investigate the quality or source of drugs used in executions before they happen. “Other states are going to have to justify their processes to make sure what happened in Oklahoma doesn’t happen there,” Richard Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center told msnbc. That conversation will include the growing controversy over lethal injection. Jay Inslee suspended the death penalty in February, he said said he wanted his state to “join a growing national conversation about capital punishment.” Polls show support for the death penalty is at its lowest point since the 1970s. Of the 18 states that have abolished the death penalty, six have done so in the past seven years.
With crime rates dropping across the U.S., states abolishing capital punishment, and drug companies abandoning the execution market - forcing the creation of secret and unproven drug combinations - the fight to end the death penalty may have reached a tipping point.
The botched execution of an Oklahoma inmate Tuesday night has temporarily halted planned executions in that state, but the horrifying death of Clayton Locket is only the most recent in a series of executions to illustrate that lethal injection is not a humane alternative to options like the electric chair or firing squad. The death penalty may be on its death bed.
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